Note: send in any tales of woe if your beer plans have been disrupted by COVID-19. Send an email to info@idiots.beer. We will feature it here. This page will keep track of cancelled beer events.
March 30 – We missed this announcement, which was made on 19 March – Cantillon has postponed Quintessence until 1 May 2021. Tickets will remain valid. Those who want to be reimbursed can send an email to info@cantillon.be.
“Circumstances permitting, we’ll put out certain bottles that were planned for tasting at Quintessence for on-site consumption here in our tasting room for anyone who’ll be around Brussels at the end of April,” the brewer adds.
26 March – Brouwerij De Dochter van de Korenaar has reset its DVDK-Family Day. It’s an unsure world at this moment but a tentative new date is 4 July.
Cantillon’s offer of free delivery in Brussels of six-packs of beer was taken up with gusto by thirsty drinkers when it was offered on 23 March. By the evening of 26 March all the packs were sold out except for the relatively expensive “small is beautiful” pack. We are keeping watch on when they release a new batch. The brewer is donating 10% of the sales price to the Erasme hospital fund.
Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen has closed its shop down. Administrative staff and others are working from home. The brewer hopes to “gently start up operations” in April again. Meanwhile, minimal work will be done at the brewers different sites with staff slowly rotate between bottling, blending and brewing.
“Meanwhile, as the brewing, beer distribution and hospitality industry is literally put on hold, we will also get some stuff done that, otherwise, would continue to be put on the bottom of the to-do and priority stack. Yes, the website among others (read further for one of the “other” initiatives),” the brewer says.
No decision has been taken on Twisting the Fate III event: “As the Twisting the Fate event is a non-ticketed event with free entrance, our current options vary from the full-fledged event as intended to “at least our shop is open” (maybe with some specific blends for sale). We simply don’t know yet, but we hope to welcome as many of you as possible. But safety will come first.”
Nanobrasserie de l’Ermitage is offering home delivery during the Corona crisis through its online platform. Use the code “Ermitage” to get 10% off.
BrewDog Brussels will launch the “BrewDog Online Bar” at 18h on 27 March. Apparently there will be beer, a quiz, music and community. “Staying in is the new going out,” says the brewer, which by the way has suspended member discounts.
Station 1280 in Antwerp is delivering for free within the 25 km radius of the city if you order a minimum of €25, with the promise of same day delivery if ordered before 4 pm. For the rest of Flanders: free delivery for orders of min. €50, next day delivery. The available beers can be found on the bar’s Untappd page.
Hof ten Dormaal is offering free delivery at home in a radius of 20 km around the brewery. Order via an email to sales@hoftendormaal.com or by calling 0498/339.777.
23 March – Belgian craft brewers have teamed up to launch the Belgian DAT calender (Drinking Apart Together). The calendar aims to support small brewers by encouraging drinkers to buy beers from them directly (while maintaining social distance).
#DATsupport #DAT #DrinkingApartTogether #supportyourlocals
20 March – Of course, everywhere the beer industry is suffering. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), which runs over 180 local beer festivals across the UK, has cancelled all events – including local beer festivals – planned between now and the end of June.
Notable events that have been cancelled include the inaugural Great Welsh Beer Festival, which was to make its debut in Cardiff from 22-25 April, as well as the Members’ Weekend, Conference and AGM due to take place in York from 3-5 April.
CAMRA’s flagship festival, the Great British Beer Festival, is currently under review as it is due to take place at Olympia, London from 4-8 August.More information on CAMRA events and activity will be provided as the situation unfolds.
19 March – The Tilquin English Beer Festival 2020 + Open doors has been cancelled. “In this context with so much uncertainty, we don’t think it is possible to continue hoping to make this festival happen. It doesn’t seem possible to us to keep organizing this serenely, and keep injecting time and money without knowing if we will be allowed to do it, or if we will get all the beers on time and all the brewers gathered on the 2nd and 3rd of May, or even if we will have enough people present on the festival that costs are paid and most of the kegs are emptied. This event will hopefully come back in two years. Stay safe at home. Take care.”
17 March – Hof ten Dormaal has postponed the Leuven Innovation Beer festival until “Pentacost weekend (end of May/ beginning of June)” as the new date for this year’s edition. It was to be held 4-5 April. Ticket sales are temporarily suspended until the new date is worked out.
The International Gueuze & Kriek Festival of the Payottenland, known as the Night of the Great Thirst, has switched to 11 September from 24 April. The festival occurs every two years. The announcement comes in the wake of the cancellation of Zythos Beer Festival, originally scheduled for 25-26 April.
Breda’s Hop on Hop off Festival has been moved to 12-14 June 2020 from 3-5 April. You can use your ticket for the new date or get a refund.
Gueuzerie Tilquin is still hoping its English Beer Festival from 2-3 May can go ahead. Ticket sales remain open. “Not sure if it’s worth continuing to dream, but here are 4 additional breweries that are/were supposed to come at the 4th edition of the Tilquin English Beer Festival:
– Verdant Brewing Co (Penryn, Cornwall)
– DEYA Brewing Company (Cheltenham, Gloucestershire)
– Little Earth Project (Sudbury, Suffolk)
– BrewDog OverWorks (Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scottland).”
16 March – Python Beer Cellar in Brussels is the latest to decide that it will not even keep its beer sales shop open during the crisis. Our thoughts to JT and Javier!
3 Fonteinen has closed its shop until at least March 22nd. “We will keep you posted on further developments through Facebook.”
Beerfreakchick in Ghent is staying open from 14-20h. “I am working on getting a delivery option soon, so stay tuned for more info.”
This news just in from a reliable source: Zythos has just CANCELLED its signature beer festival in Leuven from 25-26 April!
Gueuzerie Tilquin says it is not cancelling or postponing the English Beer Festival 2020 + Open doors on 2 May: “The pre-sale for the Tilquin English Beer Festival 2020 + Open doors is now online! Book your pass for one or two days and get a 2 EUR discount compared to the on-site price! The festival is happening outside, and has never gathered 1000 people together at the same time and on one day. We hope that in 1 month and a half we will be all happy to go out and enjoy amongst the best English beers all together.”
Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen is feeling meh: “TODAY 13/03/2020 we are still open until 19 pm! Feel free to come! The store remains open for purchases and collection of packages. The opening hours will even be extended during this period: from Monday to Saturday from 8.30 am to 17.00 pm. So feel welcome. The Lambik-O-dream / degustation room will unfortunately be closed. All guided tours during this period will also be cancelled. All persons involved will receive a separate e-mail. The tasting of Thursday, April 2, 2020 will be cancelled. All persons involved will receive a separate e-mail. The tasting of Thursday, April 23, 2020 and the Spections of Lot III (24 and 25 April 2020) continue until further notice.”
Beerlovers Bar in Antwerp: “All kegs must die, we gonna kill them today: all beers on draft: 4,00 euro. (Pils 13 stays 3,00 euro). Join us today, because we will be on a Corona closure till April 3rd.
Le Source is selling all its on tap beers for €3. The shop will be open Thursday and Friday from 16h to 20h.
Along with Le Source, Fermenthings is also feeling the pain. Workshops have been postponed and brunches cancelled and the shop will close. However today, the store will be selling some of is lacto-fermented food (Kimchi, sauerkraut, hot sauces,…) made for different cancelled catering gigs. “Bring your jar and come get some probiotics!” Yannick will also be making sandwishes with the perishable food we have left & selling what’s in the beer & cider fridge at a discount.”
Moeder Lambic Fontainas & Gist have announced that their Saint Patrick’s Day event has been canceled.
JORAN – Cidrothèque is offering 50% off on all ciders on tap until all kegs are gone, or until the bar is closed. “Growlers welcome (come with you empty bottles, we’ll fill them up so you have some proper cider to drink at home while we’re closed). We have that unique Single Variety Foxwhelp of Ross On Wye Cider & Perry Co., the very last keg existing on this planet of this fine cider. There’s also a Tamoshanta from Pilton Cider that we don’t want to throw away. And the Enter The Dragon of Little Pomona, Orchard & Cidery, the penultimate keg of this kind.”
New statement from Cantillon: “In light of the last night’s decision by the National Security Council, we will be cancelling our public brew tomorrow and we will begin reimbursing all tickets purchased. Until further notice, the Brussels Museum of the Gueuze will be closed for the following three weeks, until April 4th. If you have purchased a ticket for a guided tour that falls during this period, you will be reimbursed. Our taproom will be closed as well, but the brewery store will remain open for take-away purchases from Monday to Friday from 10AM to 5PM. We look forward to welcoming you for a visit and a glass of Gueuze another time.”
Le Barboteur, which has a TTO with La Source tonight told me: “Yep event still on tonight till midnight ! – as we’re also a shop we will be open during the week from 12h to 19h with the possibility to buy growlers so beers from the tap will still be poured.”
La Tana’s owner, Valerio, just put out a message that today he is filling out the documents needed to close down. If people want food ingredients, beers or wine they should contact him to see when he is at the restaurant.
Dynamo is offering an “empty the keys” night on 13 Friday, with on tap beers for €4 and 10% off takeaways.
Beergium is also offering “kill our kegs for the price of a Corona 3eur / 25cl – 4eur / 33cl on ALL THE KEGS”.
Station 1280 in Antwerp is offering 25% off on the kegs until midnight. The bottle shop will stay open Monday to Friday.
Brasserie Cantillon put out a statement that Le Brassin Public on 14 March will go on but with restrictions: Groups of visitors will be limited to 20 people maximum, access to the tasting room will be limited to avoid overcrowding, disinfectant will be available to all visitors throughout the brewery, door handles, railings and other points of contact will be regularly disinfected throughout the day.
12 March – Tilquin English Beer Festival just started selling tickets. The festival is from 2-3 May.
Leuven Innovation festival might be postponed from its 4-5 April date to later in the month. Organiser Brouwerij Hof Ten Dormaal told Beer Idiots that the brewer is waiting on guidance from the city council.
An organiser from the Maldegems Beer Festival 2020 (March 21) told Beer Idiots that the festival is postponed. “We will communicate the new date of our festival asap. The quiz on Friday is not cancelled. its a sad decision but the only right one.”
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Run for the hills and make sure you carry a case of your favourite beer! In any case we are heading for the supermarket after work to stock up on beer in case we are quarantined. Beer is food after all.
We might even pick up some food and toilet paper for the family, if there is any left. Stay safe everyone.
We are not laughing
Yet, the Beer Idiots are not laughing now when COVID-19 shuts down a great beer festival in Warsaw, Poland that we had booked flights (all four of us) and an apartment and our tickets.
Well the organisers are claiming they have just postponed it, but we are screwed out of our travel costs if the infection spreads so much that it turns out that Warsaw is an empty city when we get there.
Perhaps both countries will be in shut down then and we might get the cash back.
Paweł Leszczyński, organiser of the Warsaw Beer Festival 27-28 March, says the festival is being postponed to another date, which has not been set yet. He is offering ticket buyers refunds.
“This edition of the festival was supposed to be better than all the previous ones,” he writes. “We worked hard, we put our heart into it and we were really proud of what we will present to you at the end of March. We’ve never had such great attractions, so many speeches, tasting, excellent foreign breweries, charity activities. The exhibitors also stood at the height of the task and prepared beers at the world level, often specially for the festival.
We don’t want to throw it away. That’s why we don’t cancel, but we’re moving the deadline. We don’t know the future, we don’t know how the situation will develop. That’s why at this moment we are not able to say exactly when. But we will inform you as soon as possible. This is a very difficult and unusual situation that has never happened before.”
What about other festivals and beery events?
The “big one”, Zythos Beer Festival, has just issued a statement that they are not cancelling the festival yet, as the Belgian government advice to cancel all events with more than 1000 visitors ends on 31 March.
They are being hopeful: “Seeing as the Zythos Bierfestival takes place April 25 and 26, the festival WILL GO AHEAD AS PLANNED. Of course we will follow the situation closely and we will keep you posted if there are any new government guidelines.”
What about Leuven Innovation, Twisting the Fate III, the The Night of Great Thirst, and the Tilquin English Beer Festival 2020 in April/May? We have contacted the organisers to find out. Stay tuned!
